The goal of this paper is to analyze the role that non-financial variables can play in assessing Smes creditworthiness and to compare their value in predicting business failure with the one of the most commonly used financial ratios. We investigate the importance for banks in modeling credit...

We propose a relatively simple, accurate and flexible approach to forecasting the distribution of defaulted debt recovery outcomes. Our approach is based on mixtures of Gaussian distributions, explicitly conditioned on borrower characteristics, debt instrument characteristics and credit...

This paper analyzes the methods of rating attribution of the major international agencies (Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s) between 2005 and 2010 for a sample of Italian and European listed banks and tests empirically, through the multivariate analysis of Ols, the possible relations of...

Despite the long experience in the U.S. with restructuring companies in bankruptcy, there remains a persistent tendency for companies to emerge from Chapter 11 with too much debt and too little profitability. In this article, the author uses a variant of his well-known "Z-Score" bankruptcy...

This impressive Handbook presents the quantitative techniques that are commonly employed in empirical finance research together with real-world, state-of-the-art research examples.

Nineteen-ninety-eight was a mixed performance year for the high yield bond market in the United States, with much below average returns and spreads over default-risk-free Treasury Bonds but continued relatively low default rates and losses and another record year of new insurance. Returns and...